Western RE refining projects attempt 2025 push

Attempts to establish commercial-scale rare earth separation and processing outside China are growing in number and progressing gradually with a view to ramping up output over the next two years.

Mineral resources developers are scrambling to reassess and upgrade their estimates of mineable rare earth element (REE) content as western governments attempt to encourage producers to establish production closer to home. And new efforts to develop high-volume processing capacity outside China — which currently accounts for more than 80pc of global refining — are emerging.

Western countries are well behind China in advancing technical processes to refine REs from raw materials, as they seek alternatives to the highly polluting solvent extraction process. But with China banning the export of RE extraction and separation technologies in December 2023, as well as exports to the US of key electronic metals in December 2024, the impetus is growing to come up with viable Western production.

RE oxides are used in the manufacturing of permanent magnets for electric vehicle (EV) motors, wind turbines and electronics, as well as batteries, lasers, metal alloys, medical devices and military equipment.

Given that latter application, the US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded more than $439mn in financing since 2020 to support a new domestic supply chain, from the separation and refining of materials mined in the US to downstream production of magnets. In a broader trend towards "friendshoring" of critical material supply, the DoD considers Canada, Australia and the UK as domestic suppliers.

In December alone, several western companies announced progress in their plans to build production capacity. Northeast Wyoming in the US has one of the highest-grade deposits in North America, which firms such as Wyoming Rare USA and Rare Element Resources are looking to develop.

Other projects in the US include ReElement Technologies in Indiana, Rainbow Rare Earths in Florida and Lynas in Texas. Energy Fuels in Utah and Phoenix Tailings in Massachusetts are in production, ramping up volumes to meet market demand.

These facilities would spread the supply chain across the US, expanding from MP Materials in California, which has previously been the only commercial-scale facility in the country.

In Canada, developer Ucore Rare Metals in December received a payment of $1.8mn from the US DoD, part of a $4mn award to conduct REE separation work at the company's RapidSX commercial demonstration facility in Kingston, Ontario.

Ucore is also developing its flagship project, the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex, in a foreign trade zone it said will provide an advantage if the incoming Trump administration implements tariffs and other trade measures.

Reflecting the competition between countries for limited processing capacity, Ucore said it intends to continue the DoD project in the first half of 2025 and then turn to completing its C$4.28mn light REE demonstration project with the Government of Canada.

Canada is home to one of the first in the wave of new western producers, as the government-backed Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) started producing neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal during the summer.

Like the US, European countries are also targeting domestic production in a bid to secure their supply chains.

Projects include the expansion of Nd and NdPr processing capacity at UK-based Less Common Metals (LCM), the addition of NdPr production at Belgian chemical group Solvay at its plant in France in 2025 and French consultancy Carestar's plan to start production in 2026 of RE oxides from mining concentrates and, later, recycled magnets. REEtec in Norway plans to start a commercial NdPr plant in 2025 and Swedish state-owned LKAB plans to start an RE oxide demonstration plant by the end of 2026. These initiatives are in line with plans across Europe to increase EV manufacturing and renewable energy.

Rare earth mining projects in Africa and Australia are largely targeting supply deals or integrated production in Asia or North America. Miners in Brazil, such as Aclara, are also planning integrated production by developing separation plants close to demand in the US and Europe.

By Nicole Willing